Warning: Today's silly rant just got bigger and bigger in my head as I typed along. It is not complete because I'll cut it off for length before it gets anywhere or profound because I'm really not all that good at this.
When I was a kid, Burlington used to end all of their TV commercials with the catch phrase, "Making machines do more so man can do more." That was the positive spin on the once widely-held fear that machines will ultimately replace man. Burlington's spin was right on the mark. Machines do more now so that we can do more. One of the machines in our lives every day now is the computer. Unfortunately, for all of us, it is still a rather fragile machine dependent on electricity or batteries, fiber optics, and man-made software among other things. It is also extremely sensitive to heat, dust, and electrical surges and interruptions among many other things. Because of what they do for us and what that allows us to do, many businesses can't do many simple things without them. The word simple is the key word here. The tasks aren't all that simple, especially if the task is answering a question. The computer made them simple. That leads me to the dumb question that still gets asked whenever the computer is not available to us:
What did you do before computers?
Let's assume for the moment that the person being asked is old enough to remember what we did before computers. You get extra points for asking a 17 year old part-timer. I'll only touch on a few things.
The biggest loss would be instant access to information. The question "When will you have it?", assuming an "I don't know" answer will be unacceptable (A very safe assumption in today's instant gratification world), used to set in motion a long chain of queries and follow-ups that would be impossible today because the computer is now responsible for things that people used to be responsible for. The long chain of queries includes the following:
1) Is it already on order?
Without a computer today, there may be a record of this in some companies. Probably not, though. This will take time. If there is a record, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
2) If yes, was it available?
Without a computer today, there may be a record somewhere or a phone number or numbers to call if not. This will take quite a bit of time. If there is a record somewhere or a number or numbers to call, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
3) If it is not on order, is it available?
Without a computer today, there may be a number or numbers to call. This will take a lot of time. If there is a number or numbers to call, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
4) If yes to was or is it available, where is it coming from?
Without a computer today, there may be a number or numbers to call. This will take time. If there is a number or numbers to call, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
5) If no to either, when will it be available?
Good luck getting a timely or accurate answer to that with or without computers.
6) If it was available, when was it shipped?
Without a computer today, there may be a number or numbers to call. This will take time. If there is a number or numbers to call, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
7) If it hasn't been shipped, when will it ship?
Without a computer today, there may be a number or numbers to call. This will take time. If there is a number or numbers to call, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
8) What carrier?
Without a computer today, there may be a number or numbers to call. This will take time. If there is a number or numbers to call, please continue. If not, this is the end of the line.
9) If it has been shipped, where is it now?
Without a computer today, there may be a number or numbers to call and it will take time. Tracking shipments today WITH COMPUTERS runs the gamut from pretty good and accurate to wildly inaccurate and haphazard. Without computers, it was pure guesswork.
You'd also have fewer choices. The floor space now being used to display the products you want was dedicated to mountains of files and records and a lot of staff to keep track of them. You'd be paying more for those products because more staff would have to be paid. You'd be waiting longer because, in most cases, people can't write as fast as a laser printer can print and they can't add or calculate sales tax as fast as computers.
As you can probably tell by now, I get asked "What did you do before computers?" a lot. I find it easiest to just say I don't know or I wasn't around then. Do you get asked this? What do you say?
About today's QOTD, I'm not that surprised about a $19 grilled cheese sandwich, no matter how fancy, because I kinda thought yesterday's $8 iced tea was amazing enough.
40 days until football season ...
Quote of the Day
I have 32 versions. We take people's basic perceptions of the grilled cheese and blow it out of the water.
Matt Fish
Blog of the day here.
Quote from said blog: "This cat's diggin' me. Face and all"
"What did you do before computers?"
I never got that question in my last job. What I did get was "When is the server/computer/network going to be fixed?", usually in either an angry or desperate tone. If it had been asked though, the short answer for many tasks would have been "we didn't". The freight forwarder I worked for would have stayed a small niche forwarder without the computer programs that automated shipment consolidation and document printing. The company never would have grown to the size it did, or gotten into the transportation services that it could offer, without computer automation.
Some tasks could still be done by phone and/or dusting off the old typewriter in the corner. The sheer volume of shipments made that impractical for about 75% of the company's business though. When the IT system failed, the affected location(s) for the most part ground to a halt. A fact that usually escaped senior management when I tried to budget for redundancy and disaster recovery projects every year.
"If it had been asked though, the short answer for many tasks would have been "we didn't"."
Not only is it a short answer, it is also accurate and complete. Unfortunately, the only short answer that has ever worked for me is "I don't know". When I say it worked, I mean it ended a conversation that I didn't want to have. Too often, these are one-sided conversations similar to the "but why" conversations adults have with 5yr olds.
Too often, these are one-sided conversations similar to the "but why" conversations adults have with 5yr olds.
So true.
I know exactly what I did. Many times a day I would actually get up out of my chair and walk to the filing cabinet.
That's true, Marie, and I think there will still be a place for filing cabinets in most companies for a few more years but they're on their way out. Computers use less time and space; both valuable commodities. There are only hard copies for a small fraction, maybe 10%, of the business we do daily in my workplace and most of that is in other departments. In my department, we pretty much grind to a halt when the computers are down.
When the telephones are down, no one ever asks what we did before telephones. They grasp that.